Rich List

Rich List

We are conducting a live investigation into who might be the world's richest person. The idea is that none of the existing rich lists could capture such a person because they rely heavily on metrics that are easier to confirm. Each of our candidates so far explain a bit more how the world really works, where this powerful resource is pooled and being used in strange and unexpected (and sometimes dastardly) ways.
13 posts

Sam Bankman-Fried: Hero to Zero

by Tom Wright /
In April, we put Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF, on our Brazen Rich List at $30 billion. Today, we're reducing SBF to zero. His crypto exchange FTX is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy as it attempts to fill an $8 billion hole.   We've got some inside

I, Roman

by Tom Wright /
In recent weeks, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we’ve had a real-time lesson in the near impossibility of getting a solid handle on the net worth of the uber rich. It’s time, dear readers, to turn to Roman Abramovich for our Brazen Rich List.

Crypto Savant Makes Rich List

by Tom Wright /
For our Brazen Rich List this week, we’re delving back into crypto. If you’re looking to survey undercounted wealth, there really is no better place to search than this new and fast-growing industry. So far, Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, the founder of crypto-trading platform Binance, is top of

Rich List: King of Thailand

by Bradley Hope /
In Bangkok these days anger over the Thai king’s use of state wealth for personal reasons is at boiling point. In a country where criticism of King Maha Vajiralongkorn can get you locked up, people refer to him as “Super V” in whispered conversations to avoid problems. There’s

A Friend of the Politburo

by Bradley Hope /
At Project Brazen, we’ve been drawing up our rankings of the world’s richest people who don’t appear on the Forbes list, or who are on it, but with a vastly understated level of wealth. The world’s richest people have many reasons to hide their true holdings,

Oligarch of Oligarchs

by Bradley Hope /
It was about time we confronted one of the big candidates in our search for the world's richest person head-on. There's no better place to start than Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, a former intelligence operative who went on to become one of the most powerful and long-running

Rich List: Wall Street's Greatest Gambler

by Bradley Hope /
As results were tallied up on the night of the the 2020 presidential elections, one high roller was floating a whopping $2.5 billion worth of bets that Donald Trump would lose, according to our sources. He was betting against two counterparties. Even with Trump refusing to concede and threatening

Is Changpeng Zhao the richest man on earth?

by Bradley Hope /
Forbes Magazine in September listed Changpeng Zhao, a.k.a. CZ, the Chinese-born founder and CEO of crypto-trading exchange Binance, as the 22nd richest person in Singapore, a tiny island nation of 5.5 million people. The magazine put the wealth of CZ, as he’s known, at $1.9